Fab 8 tax bill given final OK

Fab 8 tax bill given final OK

The tax assessment settlement for the GlobalFoundries computer chip plant — a deal that will make Fab 8 the largest taxpayer in the county, likely for decades to come — got its final government approval Monday.

The county Industrial Development Agency, which will administer the deal, gave the enormous settlement agreement its unanimous final approval at a meeting in Ballston Spa.

Under the agreement, Fab 8 will be assessed at $635 million for this year, dwarfing the assessment of any other single private property in the county.

The deal, which would settle two pending assessment lawsuits and eliminate the possibility of future assessment court cases, has been pending since March while it went through a series of local approvals.

The IDA, however, held off on its own endorsement until the agreement had been approved by the five municipal governments that are directly affected.

The Ballston Spa and Stillwater school districts, the towns of Malta and Stillwater, and the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors have all now approved the deal, with officials saying it gives them certainty about how much money the chipmaker will pay them in the future.

“The key to the settlement was the five jurisdictions approving it,” IDA Chairman Raymond F. Callanan said at a meeting in Ballston Spa.

The potentially contentious issue of the massive factory’s assessment will now be settled through 2059, once state Supreme Court Justice Thomas Nolan signs the necessary papers.

GlobalFoundries is currently starting production at the Fab 8 plant and is currently at its top assessed value of $635 million, according to the settlement’s terms.

That means the company’s current annual tax bill will be about $13 million, 90 percent of which will go to the two school districts.

GlobalFoundries Fab 8 is located in the town of Malta and in the Ballston Spa school district, but its tax revenue is shared with Stillwater. The GlobalFoundries property, like the rest of the Luther Forest Technology Campus, is partially located in Stillwater and the Stillwater School District.

Under the settlement negotiated by attorneys for GlobalFoundries and the municipalities, the assessment gradually declines after 2013. GlobalFoundries’ lawyers argued that factories depreciate in value over time.

The assessment would decline each year from 2013 until 2027, when it would be $125 million. The assessment would then remain at $125 million through 2059.

There are also provisions establishing how the under-construction second administration building and any future buildings at the Fab 8 site will be assessed.

Also as part of the deal, GlobalFoundries will drop its challenge of the 2010 and 2011 assessments on the campus: $160 million and $400 million, respectively.